The First Crimean War

After over a century and a half of flying under the radar, the Ukrainian peninsula, Crimea, is front page news once again. The following photograph by Roger Fenton, Valley of the Shadow of Death, reveals the limitations of the medium of photography in the mid-19th century. Materials were slow (significantly less light sensitive) and photographers were therefore unable to capture the action of war in real time.

Roger Fenton, Shadow of the Valley of Death, 1855 (Siege of Sevastopol).

Fenton had to create images that spoke of war symbolically. In the case of this image, Fenton pictured the spent cannonballs that failed to meet their intended targets and that read almost as human skulls scattered across the bleak landscape. There is some controversy as to whether the cannonballs were deliberately placed for the purpose of being photographed, but for students of photo history, this shouldn't come as much of a shock:

 Arthur Rothstein, Cattle Skull, Badlands, SD, 1936

It is common knowledge that Rothstein moved the bleached cow skull a meter or two from the patch of dry grass where he found it. He did so in an attempt to make a more compelling image that spoke of the ecological disaster of the Dust Bowl symbolically.

As the news comes in from the contemporary conflict in Ukraine, I challenge you to analyze reportage. Think about the images that are disseminated, and ultimately, question the biases of reporters with various agendas. Even when cannonballs or cow skulls are not repositioned, is it possible that any photograph, even one that is straight and unadulterated, can only ever speak of war symbolically?